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EULOGY 



LATE rHESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES, 

DELIVEKED BY THE APPOIXTJIENT OF THE 

CITY AUTHORITIES AND CITIZENS, CONJOINTLY, 

OF THE 

CITY OF CAVM-BPtlDGE, 

AUCJUST 13, 1850. 



By LUTHER V. BELL. 






CAMBRIDGE: 

PRINTED AT THE CHRONICLE OFFICE. 
18 50. 



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To THE Honorable Luther V. Bell, 

.sV,-^_At ;i iiK'ctin.ir of tlie City Council last cvcniii,^,-, an order was passed, l>y 
a concurrent vote of the two hoards, as follows : 

"C>n/,'/v(/, Tliat the Mayor and President of the Common Council 1)e a Com- 
mittee to express the thanks of the City Council to the llonoi-ahle Luther V. Bell, 
for the verv ajiiiroiiriate and cloiiuent Eulogy delivered hy him this day, on the 
Life, Character, and Servii'cs of Zachary Taylor, late President of the United 
States, and to renuest of him a copy for the press." 

It uives us sincere pdeasure to execute the commission assii^ned to ushy the City 
Council : and we (.'annot forhear to express our earnest desire, that you will com- 
ply with the re(piest of the Council, liy furnishing a copy for pulilieation. 
EespectfuUy, 

Your ohedient servants, 

SIDNEY WILLABD, ) , 

; Committee. 
S. r. IIEYWOUU, ) 

Ciimhi-idijc, AiKj. U 1S50. 



Somcrv'iUr, Aiirj. U, 1850. 
Gentlcmrii, — In accordance with the very complimentary re(piest of the City 
Council of Camln-idge communicated through you, I iiave the honor to submit the 
manuscript of the Eulogy of our late venerated President. 

The very hrief space allowed for its preparation is so well known to the City 
Council, as to render superfluous any claiming of their indulgence. The citizens 
of Caml)ridge, I am sure, will nnike every allowance for a performance undertaken 
at so short notice from a desire to meet their wishes. 

"\VitIi thanks to you personally for the kind nninner of your communication, 

I am, very truly yours, 

LUTHER V. BELL. 
His Hoxor Sidney Willard, 

S. P. HeywooD, Esq., Committee. 



EULOGY. 



Those accustomed to maik the weight of great events 
upon the pu]:)hc mhid, would probal)ly concur in opin- 
ion, that no removal by death of any distinguished 
citizen, since the departure of the Father of his Country, 
has occasioned a sentiment of such universal and pro- 
found sensibihty, — has struck so deep a IjIow upon the 
national heart, — as the decease of our late revered Chief 
Magistrate. When it is recollected that four short yeai"s 
af>-o, General TtiAlor Avas almost an unlvuown man to his 
countrjmien at large, — was only imostentatiously and 
unambitiously fulfdling his duties as an officer of our 
army, and enjoying the high esteem of his friends and 
the entire confidence of his government, we may well 
feel struck with the deep, earnest, heartfelt grief which 
his sudden, and for all but himself, premature end has 
called forth throunliout the wliole land, — from one of 
the great oceans to tlie other. Nor is the profound 
sensibility at our loss confined to his native land. The 
deep responses just echoing l);iclv to us across the waste 
of waters, renew and rekindle our sorrow, for we feel 



6 

that another hemisphere and the distant isles of the 
ocean condole with us, that a friend to justice, peace 
and humanity is no more ! 

When we also consider that he was called to that 
highest post of human greatness by the triumphs of a 
party, a majority, but still only a part of his fellow- 
citizens, and that too under no ordinary circumstances 
of party enthusiasm and excitement, we cannot but feel, 
whether among his early supporters or not, a melan- 
choly pleasure, a generous satisfaction, as American 
freemen, that around his bier all have united in frater- 
nal sympathy, and the tears of all sections into which 
an honest zeal for our country's welfare has thrown us, 
have been commingled over the remains of one whom 
this united heart, this accordant voice of his countrymen, 
pronounce to have been a great and good man ! Such 
unanimity of sorrow is honorable alike to the dead and 
the living. It is an omen auspicious to the fates of the 
republic ! 

It is a glorious thought, for it tells of reconciliation, of 
forgiveness and brotherhood — a consolation full of hope 
to the patriot, that however dark and portentous may 
seem the clouds of disunion, which at times may lower 
over our country, that chasm cannot be hopelessly wide, 
that wall of partition cannot be insurmountably high, 
which allows north and south and every other division 
among us, to come freely together to bury and to mourn 
a common chief, father and friend. 

I speak not of merely outward ceremonies of lamen- 
tation and respect. That every external tribute which 



custom and association liave consecrated as fitting 
and expressive tol<ens of a nation's sorrow, should 
l)e paid, — tlie unanimous and aftecting eulogies and 
honors within the national Legislature, — the sepulture 
hy a nation's hand, — the solemn rites in every city, — 
the funeral knell, — the l)Ooming minute-gun, — the 
drooping tlags, — the moaning dirge, — and "all the pomp 
and circumstance" witli which a great nation is wont to 
s])eak its gratitude and its grief, — is so natural, so in 
conformity with usage and propriety, when the Presi- 
dent of a republic, a people's choice is removed, that 
their omission would indeed l>e an awful mark of a 
people's indifference — a nation's disapproval. But for 
him, whose oljsequies we are met to celebrate, this is 
no empty oljservance of decorous forms, — no barren 
show of heartless mourning, lie that looks the least 
below the surface of a nation's feelings, will not have 
one doubt that it 

" hath tluit witliiii, which pnsscth show, 



These hut the trappiii,i;s and the suits of woe. " 

A man "who has filled the measure of his country's 
glory," — whose recent and short elevation, gratifying 
as it was to a majority of his fellow-citizens, bore even 
to them an exultation small in proportion to the regrets 
of all in his downfall before the common enemy, could 
not but have characteristics of head and heart, in his 
life, his feelings and his judgments, which it is a 
])ri\'ilege and a duty for his mourning fellow-citizens to 
analyze and unfold. It is of the rew^ards and excellen- 
cies of distinguished virtue and o-reatness, that their 



8 

j)ossessor is renewed in coming generations, in that his 
traits of merit are available for their imitation and 
encouragement. 

That honorable duty, with which, as an early admirer 
of what was already developed of the character of our 
late President, I am proud to be entrusted, diffidently 
undertaken and with hasty preparation, at the request 
of the authorities and citizens conjointly of this city, 
renowned in the annals of American literature, and 
extending itself over the classic ground of the American 
revolution, it shall be mine to attempt. 

The work must be done in sober sadness, — in plain 
and simple words, — for such I deem fitting, and in 
harmony with my subject. Even had my life been 
trained in Academic groves and literary seclusion to 
exalt the warrior's fame in strains of eloquence and 
poetry, I would not seek to throw around that unso- 
phisticated, modest, unadorned old man the ephemeral 
incense of high-flown adulation, or wreath his brows 
with garlands of exalted praise. He never felt one 
aspiration to be a hero of the world's worship. The 
gaudy and blood-stained laurels, from which he turned, 
sickened and disgusted, when living, shall be scattered 
by no hand of mine over his grave when dead! My 
spirit revolts from the wish to glorify him with extrava- 
gant eulogiums. I would fain speak of him as he was, 
and in the events of his long, but not overcrowded life, 
would seek to know how he acquired that never-ebbing 
confidence, respect and affection which we, the people, 
bore to him. The monument by which in common 



9 

Avitli :i thousand coadjutors on this ailecthig occasion, 
I wouhl aid to perpetuate (nn* gratitude and his nolde 
exanipk', should ])e no Corinthian column ot" exquisite 
proportions, chiseled in ilorid and elaljorate decorations. 
Rather in harmony ^vitll the eternal fitness of things, 
should it he the solid, u.nornamented, simple o))elisk 
of eternal granite, Avliose smnmit should dely the 
tempest, au.d whose sides should only l)e made more 
resplendent in whiteness, as the storms of time should 
beat against it. 

The outline of the l)iogra])her's sketch, which shall 
l)riug to ndnd the main events iu the fde of our illustri- 
ous sul»ie{'t, will make hut a paragriiph, — a. brief 
paragraph. For he was a man ever ready "to Ijide his 
time," to appear when the di'ama required his presence 
on the scene, but totally unacquainted with any sensa- 
tion of restlessness or of am1)ition, which could lead him 
to thrust himself uncalled before the world. Zachary 
Taylor was l)orn of most respecta])le parentage, — his 
father an officer of the Revolution, and often an Elector 
of Presidents, — in Oranu'C Co. in Yiru'iuia, in 1784. 
Ti-ansferred by emigration, Avhen a child, to what w^as 
then known jis the "Dark and Blood}^ ({round" of 
Kentucky, his youthful training had two elements 
beyond the pai'cntal influence, to which it is not perhaps 
extravagant to say, that the best and prominent fea- 
tures of his intellectual and moral organization are 
naturally asci'iba])le. The training of a frontier settle- 
ment, surrounded l)y savages, developed the traits of 
sagacity, valor, self possession, perseverance, which 

9 



10 

marked him as a tvarrior. The training of a New Eng- 
land schoolmaster, we would fain believe, w^as not unfelt 
in the early communication of that learning and literary 
taste which were preeminent, and that truth, integrity, 
purity and modesty, which distinguished him as a man. 
In 1808, he was appointed, Mr. Jefferson being Presi- 
dent, to his first commission, a lieutenancy, in the army 
of the United States. He rose to the rank of Captain 
in 1812, and after the declaration of war against Great 
Britain, he was breveted by President Madison for his 
memorable and gallant defence of Fort Harrison, with a 
handful of men against a large body of savages. In 
1832, then advanced to the rank of Colonel, he distin- 
guished himself in the Black Hawk war ; — was ordered 
into Florida in 1836, and for his signal services against 
the savage Seminoles, was created a brevet brigadier gen- 
eral, and commander-in-chief in Florida. Subsequently 
he was transferred to the command of the division of the 
army in the south western portion of tlie Union ; — was 
ordered into Texas in 1845 ; advanced to the banks of 
the Rio Grande, and afterw^ards, beginning with the 
battles of the 8th and 9th of May, 1846, at Palo Alto 
and Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and last and most 
glorious of all Buena Vista, he overthrew, and with the 
most fearful odds against him, signally defeated the 
most skillful of the Mexican Generals, Ampudia, Arista, 
Paredes, and even the President of the Mexican Republic 
himself, the General Santa Anna. Finally, while still 
engaged in service on a distant frontier, brought before 
his fellow-citizens by his conduct in this war, and still 



11 

more Ijy liis corrcspoiiclence with the government hi rela- 
tion to his command, his name was hailed hy an impulse 
of enthusiasm so wide spread and universal, as to seem 
almost a preternatural movement of the minds of his 
tl'llow-eitizens, and he was elected to the Presidency of 
the United States imder circumstances so remarkahle, so 
honoraljle to him as the receiver, and his country as the 
giver, as to well deserve to l)e emljalmed in the nol)le 
tril)ute paid to him l)y the American Demosthenes, in the 
Senate : " I suppose, Sii'," said Mr. AVebster, '' that no 
case ever ha})])ened in the very l)est days of the Roman 
Republic, when any man found himself clothed in the 
liig-hest authority in the state, under circumstances more 
repelling all suspicion of personal application, all suspi- 
cion of pursuing any crooked path in politics, or all 
suspicion of having 1)een actuated by sinister views and 
purposes, than in the case of the worthy and eminent 
and distinguished and good man, wliose death we now 
deplore. lie has left a legacy to the people of his 
country in this ; he has left them a In-igiit example, 
which addresses itself with peculiar force to the young 
and risiuti' u'cneration, f )r it tells them that there is a 
]iatli to the higliest degi*ee of renown, — straight, 
onward, steady, without cliange <^i" deviation." 

Sudi is an index to the events of ;i life 1)y no means 
shoi't. of a man who was the s])ontaneous, unl)iassed, i'v('(' 
choice of a l(e])ul)lic of twenty milhons of peopK' as 
their Chief Magistrate, to fdl the seat of AVashington. 

flow will an elevated, impreju(hce<l ])ostei'ity, how 
will a, severe history deal witli this i^Teat decision of 



12 

the American people ? Is the elevation of a man who 
certainly was a military chieftain, untrained in the 
schools and contests of statesmanship, of one who had 
been scarce a twelvemonth in the public eye, to be 
judged in the impartial future as a wise, discreet and 
safe exercise of a great right and a greater responsibility, 
or is it to be dealt with as an example of popular insta- 
bility, led away by novelty and caprice, and dazzled 
with the splendor of military achievement ? lias the 
event, happy and honorable as all now admit it to be, 
of Gen. Taylor's elevation to the Presidency been a folly 
of the popular will, a madness of universal suffrage 
providentially overruled, and not to l)e rehazarded ; or 
has it been the highest proof which a people could give 
of innate sagacity, of wide spread information, of wise 
and well directed freedom of choice ? Were the great 
traits of soul educed in the early Mexican campaign 
such as should be convincing — a proof ex pede Hcrciilem, 
— that their possessor would be equal to every emer- 
gency of the State ? To solve these enquires, — to 
anticipate the judgment of future times upon the Chief 
and the people who made him such, will l^e the best 
memorial to his glory and their honor ; for the character 
of the hero and his admirers will be coincident and 
mutually reflective. 

Fortunately the character of President Taylor is an 
easy study, for if ever there were a human heart clear, 
transparent, free from disguise, knowing and needing 
no concealment, it was his. 

Let us briefly run over the elements of his intellectu- 



13 

al and moral identity, as displayed in his capacity as a 
military leader, in the merits oT his acts and judp;- 
ments as a statesman diiriiig the limitedjnit ade(|iuttely 
disphn'ing period of his holding the reins of government, 
and lastly in his traits as a private citizen. 

His military life and character is tliat which naturally 
attracts our attention. All his years except the last one 
were passed as a soldier. It was nnquestion;i)dy the 
accident of his position as a soldier — sagacious, successful, 
Ijrave and humane, to which the country was inde])ted 
for its privdege of calling him to its hrst, highest, most 
difiicult trust. Yet to infer that mere military renown 
might have captivated and carried away tlie American 
people, irrespective of other great qualilications, is 
neither in accordance with experience, nor just to 
the intelligence and patriotism of our masses. Gen. 
Taylor is by no means the lirst great captain, '' without 
fear and without reproach," who has Ijcen urged by 
dazzled friends upon the people for its highest civil 
office. Vi.trre fortes aide AgcDiteiinioiia — Ijrave men are no 
such rarity in the repuldican annals, that even if enjoy- 
ing the highest personal reputation they may aspire to 
the civic crown. We, at the north at least, have been 
habitually on our guard against this, the most common 
of the dangers on which republics have been shattered 
and lost. It seems rather that in the judgment of 
intelligent freemen, and preeminently while the nation 
is at peace, or only engaged in a war from winch but 
one result can be anticipated, military achievements 
are rather an obstacle than a recommendation ; — that 



14 

it was rather in spite of renown in arms than because 
of it, that the hite President was preferred. If mere 
victories were to be passports to the great civil stations 
in the repubhc, there would be in our military and 
naval service more than one, who miglit exclaim with 
truth, that republics were indeed ungrateful. It must 
be clear to every mind which looks at the subject in all 
its bearings, that the mere triumphs of the " army of 
observation " would never have given its General any 
higher place in the honors of his country, than has been 
so justly awarded to the other great General of the 
Mexican war. The character of Gen. Taylor was 
neither formed nor established in that last call of 
military service. He was at that time already past the 
m.eridian of life, with mind, morals, habits all fixed and 
matured. That his surpassing merits should have been 
so little known or appreciated is not the least of them. 
His retiring, unobtrusive modesty — his steady, strict 
devotion to duty in the far distant and savage fields for 
which he was selected, removed him from any chance 
of being early regarded as he was. Nor is this a rare or 
wonderful circumstance ; thousands of the best and 
highest order of minds for their country's service are 
thus concealed and unsuspected. A great opportunity 
brings them forward nnd the world is instinctively 
sasracious in detectinu; their worth. It was the fires of 
the battle fields of Palo Alto and Buena Vista that cast 
the glare of their illumination upon the sublime linea- 
ments of his moral form, and one glance of his watching 
country caught enough of its greatness to satisfy it that 



15 

it was no eouiiterfoit preseiitiinent of wortli. Tlio 
tlaslies of the ])lazinL>" ai'tillery at Monterey revealed in 
the august proportions of that eahn, composed, thought- 
frJ and niereiful old man, a similitude so strong to the 
great pattern hero of mankind, that the piil)lic heart 
instinctively, spontaneously, felt that this Avas indeed 
the )U((ii raised up l)y Providence to meet his country's 
need ! Never 1_>efore was conviction so rapid, so cer- 
tain, so irresistiljle, so irreversiljle. 

I am not of those who join in that modern reform 
which would aid in diminishing the war spirit 1)y under- 
valuinu' and denouncinii- military excellence and renown. 
So long as war exists among the nations, the more 
rehned, conscientious, just and stnmg are those devoted 
to the profession of arms, the less will ])e its horrors. 

Iliu'li consideration for deeds of ])attle ever has l)een, 
ever will ]je a deep sentiment of our race, common to 
the most savage and the most cultivated of the nations. 
Its hasis is ixnititude. A leader of men in times of i>Teat 
peril is looked upon as an earthly savior. The gratitude 
poured forth while danger is immediate, while his ser- 
vices are indispensable, it is honoralde to human nature, 
is not forgotten as soon as the trial is over. The 
obliii-ation originally due and the honors and rewards 
originally accorded, to the individual earning them are 
transferred to the profession of arms itself ^Ye are 
willing to bestow in advance our thanks and Ijcnefits 
u[)on those who we know and feel are ready and 
])re[)ared to serve and protect us, when the hour of need 
shall come. AVe are grateful that there is a class of 



16 

men — of educated, refined, virtuous men, — who are 
content, especially in '' the dull piping times of peace," 
to abandon the avenues of common life, of business, 
distinction, wealth and influence, and maintain the pecu- 
liar rules, practices, habits and spirit, which the expe- 
rience of ages has demonstrated to be essential to pro- 
tection and even to peace. Modern reformers, in their 
visionary dreams of millenial harmony among the na- 
tions, while the individual heart is unchanged, forget, 
whil^ denouncing the spirit of battle, that soldiers in 
modern times have nothing to do with originating or 
extending war. That is a function left to the wisdom 
or the folly of a fir different class — the civilian and 
the statesman, moved into activity or abandoned into 
insio-nificancc by the holder of the ballot behind. Were 
there not one trained soldier or leader in the world, the 
calamities of war or its liability to come could not be in 
the least degree changed. In our land the essential 
difference would be, that war instead of being carried 
on under the prompt, effective and merciful lead of our 
Taylors, Scotts, and Wools, where it loses half its dura- 
tion and half its horrors, Avould go back to the rash, 
predatory and merciless hands of mere fighters and san- 
guinary partisans, whose sole traits of fitness and com- 
petency, and in these they could no more than equal 
the polished and refined soldier, would be recklessness 
of personal danger, sagacity in adapting means to ends, 
and that mysterious power, granted to but few, of in- 
spiring all whom they touch with their influence and 
spirit. 



17 

The liigli value Avith which maiikind appreciates true 
mihtary greatucss, has naturally made a counterfeit of 
it current through the world. The two forms, the genu- 
ine and the spurious, are as widely dillerent as any two 
existences can be, having the same generic appellation 
and a few traits only in common. 

The one phase is indicated l)y the possession of what 
is so emphatically termed the ir(ir-><p{rif, which loves war 
for its own sake. Its disciple craves the order to rush 
into the thickest of the fight, to face the cannon's mouth, 
to lead the foi'lorn hope, to plant the standard '" in the 
imminent deadly In-each" over piles, no matter how deep, 
of human corpses, and all ibr the sake of glory or of the 
rewards and recognitions of glory in promotion, titles, 
honors and eclat. The other and true grade of military 
greatness has in it no element of the war-spirit, — the 
love of l)attle for any of its excitements or results 
whether more or less respectaljle. It is that calm, con- 
siderate exercise of moral courage, of physical bravery 
and intelliu'cnt adaptation of means to bring about a 
successful result, which leads a man to peril liis own life 
and assume the awful responsil/ility for the hazards of 
thousands of other lives, because duty and the obligations 
of his conscience compel him thus to act. He regards 
the hour of battle as no reckless gala day, into wdiicli he 
is to rush with the same wild excitement as that which 
anhnates the 1)arb upon which he is seated. The true 
soldier is not l)linded to the awful duties which have 
devolved upon him. He contests them as man, while 
he also feels them as a man, and acts with an energy, 



18 

self-poise and calm enthusiasm which a true man must 
feel in the certainty that mighty consequences are sus- 
pended on his every judgment. The world has long 
since agreed upon one, the highest impersonation of true 
military greatness. The illustrious warrior whose obse- 
quies we celebrate, follows in the footsteps of him, whose 
character seems to have been the model of his life. 

Although Gen. Taylor's whole life was devoted active- 
ly, successfully, and earnestly, to the profession of arms, 
never were man's views more just than his, both in 
respect to war in the abstract and in its relations to a 
country like ours. No man less felt the war-spirit in 
himself — less cultivated it in others. Victory, instead 
of stimulating him, made him only the more anxious for 
peaceful accommodation. Even when his success was so 
unparalleled that a mere warrior would have pushed on 
to new conquests or looked onward to " the Halls of the 
Montezumas," we find him ready to do and do well, just 
what a paramount sense of obedience to the constitutional 
authorities of his country required, and no more. In his 
own language, " The oljcct nearest mij heart had been to 
lying the irar to a speed >j termination — to restore peace and 
amity between tivo nei<jhhoring repiihlics, tvhich had every 
motive to cidtivcde good ivilL My life has been devoted to 
arms, yet I looJc npon war at all times and under all circum- 
stances as a national calamity, to be avoided if compatible tvith 
national honor. The principles of our government, as well as 
its true policy, are opposed to the subjugation of other nations, 
and the dismemberment of other countries by conquest!^ 

It is evident that Gen. Taylor looked upon war just 



19 

as any other intelligent, conscientions, nnwar]K^(l man 
views it, without one professional 1)ias. lie either never 
felt or had entirely lived down in his own sonl all the 
romance and })oetry of his vocation. One of the hand 
of volnnteers not nndistinguished in the political world, 
who followed his standard to the Kio (Jrande, in a recent 
trilnite to his memory, ohserves respecting the military 
plans of his chief, that although in some instances they 
were attributed to others, they were really and emphati- 
cally his own. '' Yet," continnes Capt. Naylor, '• so mod- 
est a man was he — so dilhdent in his own ainlities, that 
when his oljject Avas once attained, and victory had 
j)erched npon our ])anners, he i/cri'r Juid an// cdhIc^Is wdh 
others ahout ihc hdircl^ r Eather was it that he saw no 
imaginary lanrels to d)e the subject of contention. We 
never see him acting, we never see him invoking others 
to act, nnder any false glosses of the nature of wai*. 
Its exercise was evidently a sad duty to him, and one 
whose repulsiveness he never deigned to conceal under 
imposing words and grandiloquent ])hrases. It evidently 
Avas never associated in his mind Avith tlie idea ot 
trinmphs, OA'ations, and rcAvards. You ncA'cr find him nt- 
terino- a sentence for elfect. The Avonderful moral inilu- 
ence he held over his troops seems to be derived solely 
from his bearinii; belbre them and their knowledge of his 
character. He made no harrangues to stimulate his army 
or to reflect his oAvn participation in its triumphs. You 
hear from him no pointed catchwords, nor Idood-stirring 
mottos to be embalmed in after times in song and 
story ; no rhetorical flourishes to be emblazoned on 



20 

triumphal arches, or to call forth enraptured plaudits of 
pit and boxes, when drawn into melodramatic uses. He 
never breathes an aspiration for " a glorious victory or 
a monument in Westminster Abbey." He never tells 
his soldiers " to watch his white plume and follow where 
it leads into the thickest of the fight ;" he never tells 
them, " Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you 
from the pyramids ! " 

The bombastic reply was put into Gen. Taylor's 
mouth, when summoned by Santa Anna to yield before 
his superior force, " Tell General Santa Anna that Gen- 
eral Taylor never surrenders!" — words better adapted 
for the hero of some naval or military drama, than for a 
wise and discreet soldier, who knew that his adversary 
had brought quadruple his force to the field. A friend 
who had been an inmate of Gen. Taylor's military family, 
indignantly spurned the idea that so uncharacteristic a 
response could have come from the good old General. 
In due time the actual correspondence came. General 
Taylor simply and briefly had stated, that he '' hcgged to 
decline acceding to his request. " 

Indeed it is certain that he never anticipated war as 
a something pardonable, if not desirable, to one whose 
work was arms ; he never looked at its actual existence 
as other than what it is — a scene of horrors; never as 
the field of brilliant feats, of glorious achievements, to 
be followed with rewards and honors. His peculiar 
transparent character allows us to enter into his very 
soul, and watch his unsophisticated, pure and elevated 
conceptions of duty. When it was proposed to place 



21 

liiiii at the head of tlie army of oljservation, he hesita- 
ted, lie was too sagacious not to see into the future 
so far, as to know that u]>on the man who hehl that 
])0st must devolve the duty of making an initiation 
of a wai'. lie had l)een, as a citizen, an open, avowed 
opponent of the amiexation of Texas. lie felt that a. 
contest hased on that act was dehcient in at least one of 
the elements which could justify it to the woi-ld. lie 
was strongly tempted to resign. Ilis sound judgment 
instantly suggested to him that such a- step certainly 
would not change what was intended, nor prol)al)ly 
postpone it one hour. On the other hand, it would not 
impi'o])aljly throw the conduct of the war into hands 
which would regard ])lood and carnage and conquest 
and ndlitarv glor\-, in a very dilTerent li^-ht from what 
he did. He also felt that the duty of a soldier was 
ohedience, and the moment individuals or coteries of 
officers should begin to form themselves into little cabi- 
nets to canvass and overrule the question, whether their 
superiors, acting under as high responsiljilities as them- 
selves, were acting wisely, there would Ije an end to the 
very name of an army and the country certainly left 
open to dishonor and invasion. To resign, would have 
been to throw the command at this most trying time and 
delicate position into less experienced hands ; would be a 
poor return for a country which had so long sustained a 
trained army to meet exigencies which its legitimate 
authorities had decided to have arrived.^ A friend 

* Fortunately within the last few days, circumstances have brought forward his 
exact views and mental operations in looking at this decision. It is a minute of a 



•09. 



might also have suggested to him, what no doubt to his 
modest self-appreciation would never have occurred, that 
if a vigorous, active war is ever the most humane or 
least cruel to both assailants and assailed, in his hands 
would the duty be best and soonest done. The result 
renders it most highly probable that in any other hands 
four battles in prompt succession would not have 
" conquered a peace " for the valley of the Rio Grande. 
I would not discuss that difficult question, how far a 
soldier is bound to implicit obedience. No one can doubt 
who examines the flict, that General Taylor was placed 
precisely in a position where a just, conscientious and 
strong-minded man was obliged to decide upon this 
point, and that he did decide it according to the best 
judgment he possessed. 

It was emphatically duty and not glory, which actuated 
him when the hour of battle arrived, as well as in the 
considerations prior to engaging in the war. His behavior 
before, during and after his battles, appears to me to 
have a marked resemblance to the deportment of one of 

conversation with him which probably, except for his death, would have left this 
point, so interesting a one in his history, to be decided only by inference. Speaking 
of his proposed resignation, he said, " Upon second thoughts, I remembered that 
for nearly forty years I had eaten the bread of the country, and I felt something 
rise within me, foi'bidding me to abandon that country and desert her service at the 
moment that she called me to a difficult, responsible, disagreeable, and dangerous 
duty. Further than this, I was opposed to the impending war, I was opposed to 
the acquisition of temtory from Mexico, I was a friend and a lover of peace, and 
it occurred to me that if the management of the war were in ni}' hands, I might 
have opportunity, from time to time, to mitigate its severities, to shorten its dura- 
tion, and facilitate the return of peace, and that the evils threatening the country, 
from a war with Mexico, might be multiplied and aggravated if, in consequence of 
my giving way, an officer of totally different views, on these subjects, should suc- 
ceed to the command. Considerations like these determined my course, and I 
abandoned my proposed resignation." 



23 

our o^rcat surgeons wlion compellcMl l)y the convictions of 
duty and necessity not to ])e resisted, to engage in the 
])loody, diihcult, and terriljle operations of his art. Care- 
ful and considerate in every preparation, anticipating and 
prepared for all possil)le contingencies, keenly alive to 
the hiii'li responsibilities of his position, the idea of liini- 
,t;(^.]f — of Ijow success or failure is to operate upon indi- 
vidual hopes, interests or reputation, appears to have 
receded so far into the l)ackground as to Ijc lost in the 
distance. The critical moment arrived, he is cool, self- 
possessed, quickened in intellectual resources. Energetic, 
decisive and confident of powei', no fdse tenderness, no 
mistaken or mistimed shrinking, no false pity spares one 
necessary stroke ; — the dreadful duty done, he is 
gentle, tender, sympathizing and merciful. 

AVhen he felt it his duty to fight, he seems to have 
also felt that internal assurance connnon to great power, 
that he was to succeed. How clear it is tliat under 
adverse circumstances his mental energies would have 
fully sustained him. When aljout to engage in the battle 
of Buena Vista, with an overwhelming superiority of 
force opposed to him, he comprehended fully the danger 
which invested him, but he had made up his mind that 
it was his duty to stand there, and in his own simple 
lano-uafe written Ijcfore the engagement, he ^' loohcd to 
Providence for a good result ! " 

On that memorable occasion at the beginning of the 
war, when it was necessary for him to reach Point Isabel 
at any hazards, for those supplies without which an army 
cannot exist, he left the little garrison at Fort Brown, 



24 

under circumstances of suspense and peril wliicli have 
scarce a parallel. He simply said, " / shall he hacT>^'' on 
a certain day. The manner in which that brave force 
and its chivalric commander performed their duty, is the 
best tribute to their full and implicit reliance in the 
promise of their chief His advices to the government 
at this time, when every eye in the country may be said 
to have been strained in w^atching the flite of this double 
forlorn hope, — those who went and those wdio were left, 
— have no word of anxiety or for effect. " //' the enemy 
oppose me, no ntaiicr in irJud force, I sJiall fight hiin.^' 

The military character of Gen. Taylor was formed in 
that perhaps, best imaginable school for true military 
greatness; a school which more than any other teaches 
a reliance upon the satisfaction of having done one's 
duty as its chief reward. I allude to campaigns against 
the savage foe. It has been well said that it is not in 
Indian wars that heroes are celebrated, but it is in these 
that heroes are formed. All the adventitious aids and 
excitements incident to war in civilized lands, are absent. 
No "Halls of the Montezumas," no triumphal arches, no 
formal delivery of the keys of walled cities with the 
parade of a fete day, no heralding presses are ready to 
welcome the victorious army of the swamp, the ever- 
glades, the prairie, and the cane-break. The foe cunning 
in his stratagems, brave in the conflict, cruel in his victory 
resembles rather the wild brute denizen of the forest 
than any foe known to military history. In the polished 
and chivalrous conflicts of European armies, the officer, 
whether he be victor or vanquished, ivnows but little 



zo 



change in personal condition and comforts. If conqneror, 
he is entitled to the palaces and Inxuries of wealth and 
refinement ; if captured, it is, perhaps, to share these with 
his rival. In Indian war, the conqueror m;irclies back 
to his l)ivouac or his rude garrison in the wilderness. 
If beaten, he is marched away perhnps to tortures and 
massacre ! Unsatistactory to the soldier as Indian wars 
must l)e, the voice of expeiience is full and decisive, that 
the successful leader in these need (hvad no other Ibrm 
of war. Gen. Taylor pre-eminently understood the cha- 
racter of the savaLfe. He conriuered him bv skill and val- 
or in war, as he did by his justice, firnmess, and truth, 
qualities which it requires no civilization to appreciate, 
in peace. He manifestly regarded with more satisfaction 
his acts in these fields, than in what the world regards 
with far higher applause. On one of the very few oc- 
casions when he alludes to himself, a reception at Erie, 
Pa., his apprehension that he might not express himself 
with that grateful sensiljility he felt, led hiui to say as 
an apology for his want of eloquence, '•^ Furl// >/cars of nnj 
life were .y>e/if in the service <f ;;/// counfr//. Tails, prirat ions, 
(OLviefff awl cure vere Ihe eleriienls (f mji educdliou. Dnrnig 
Ihid lime, I serveil luij beloved coiinh'// villi all ni>/ energies m 
ohedienee lo Ihe lavs. Thai pari (f ;y/// life lo which 1 look 
hack villi Ihe grealesl pleasure^ is vhen I was proleclinef ihe 
innocenl iidudilanls of Ihe fnndier, Hie vonien and children, 
from Hie lomahavk and scalping Indfe (f Ihe sarager 

Every account of the manner and deportment of 
Gen. Taylor on the field of battle, corresponds in repre- 
senting him as a paragon of collected courage, of deter- 



2G 

mined, unshaken, persevering resolution, such as have 
their basis in duty and reflection. He was no fire-eater 
who rushed to the onset in that fury of excitement which 
we read of in the battles of Greeks and Romans, where 
every man sought his adversary to overcome him iDy 
strength of single arm. He partook in no degree of 
that battle rage, of which poets and romancers sing, 
where a wild, reckless unconsciousness of self, almost 
like a partial insanity, prevails. 

As respects the rank of General Taylor as a great 
military commander, little douJjt can rest upon the 
estimate of posterity. His Indian battles, like all such 
tests of generalship, must necessarily remain unsung. 
His battles in Mexico are, it is true, but four in number, 
yet under the circumstances in which they were fought, 
and the vast odds against him, would fix, it is believed, 
in all minds competent to judge, his capacity as a 
soldier. A great surgeon, to draw another illustration 
from that part of the art auxiliary to Avar, need but 
watch a single capital operation, to appreciate to the 
last degree the character of the operator. The Duke 
of Wellington, that great master of the gloomy science, 
on carefully following the account of the battle of 
Buena Vista, section after section, burst forth in the 
exclamation, " General Taylor is a General indeed ! " 

A great trait of his being worthy to be called a soldier 
in the highest and most chivalrous signification of the 
name, is that merciful and humane spirit, which seemed 
a part of his nature. He never confounded the 
technical enemy w^ith the sense of personal exasperation 



z/ 



and vindictiveness. When tlic foe was conquered, there 
was an end to all sentiments, except those of kindness 
and Ijenevolence. When his readiness to extend equal 
means of relief to a wounded enemy as to his own 
troops, was relndvcd l)y some Quartermaster's douhts, as 
to the legality of any such charge, he at once silenced 
the oljjection Ijy assuming the indeljtedness, of which he 
ordered a separate account to he kept. When the 
government, it is to Ije hoped and Ijelieved from an 
erroneous view of the puhlic exigencies, expressed its 
dissatisfaction in tones almost like a reprimand, of the 
capitulation of Monterey, intimating that more had heen 
given up than the extreme rights of a victor had 
rendered proper, he Ix'ars the reljuke in easy indiffer- 
ence. To tLe officer avIio hore hhn tlie despatches, in 
ignorance however of their contents, he coolly remarked, 
after looking them over in his tent, '' The President does 
not like our cainhihluni /vv// /'v//. / irhli ive could liare IJie 
■pleasure of Jiis coiitpem/f in our rKUip a fe/n feelrs. Perluips 
he would t((ke a different rieu: of tlie irndter. " To his official 
superiors he plainly avows the reasons why he spared 
an eft\ision of useless ])lood. '' Tlie n)Usiderntion <f JiuiiKdu- 
///," says he, '' was j)reseut to )iif/ iiriud duriii;/ the coiijcreitec 
ndiich led to the coiireiiti(j/t." It is a glorious and Ijlessed 
circumstance for all future wars, if Heaven designs 
further thus to punish us for our national sins, that his 
country was on his side, and applauded him no less for 
his mercy to an al)ject foe, and his humanity to all the 
victims of war, than for his prowess and valor. Ilis 
nohle sentiment, quietly spoken to his son-in-law on the 



28 

field of Buena Vista, when the fortune of the day was 
looking doubtful, and the officer suggested the possibility 
of a retreat being inevitable, " My wounded are behind 
ME, AND I SHALL NEVER PASS THEM ALIVE ! " is to remain one 
of the nation's watchwords to the end of time. 

I am indebted to the friend already referred to, a 
medical officer of the service, for another incident illus- 
trative of the generous and kindly spirit of the old 
warrior. In one of the earliest of the Mexican actions 
there was brought to the rear a young subaltern, who 
"was making his first communion" in the bloody sacrifice 
of battle. He w^as supposed to have been mortally 
wounded, for his face was shrunken, he was cold, pulse- 
less, with a chilly perspiration bursting from every pore. 
On examination, no injury could be found. Aroused by 
stimulants, the medical officers were not slow to discover 
that the youthfid soldier had sunk beneath that moment 
of quailing, which the traditions of the camp ascribe 
once in each life, to every warrior, and to which, it is 
said, the great Duke has not proved an exception. The 
fact was communicated as a matter of official duty to 
the General. He enjoined perfect silence, with expres- 
sions of his confidence that the faltering was but acciden- 
tal and owing to nervous weakness, not to infirmity of 
soul, and that a future trial might tell a different tale. 
The earliest test was amidst the fire and carnage of the 
almost unparalleled day of Monterey. And here, fore- 
most in the breach, reckless of personal peril, with an 
unblanched cheek and unquailing eye, the lately shrink- 
ing youth cheered on his men, performing prodigies of 



29 

valor worthy of any veteran, who had passed in lon-^" 
g'one years, through the l)aptisin of ))lood and lire! 
The tender and considerate generosity of his n()])le 
chief, had saved a 1)raye man to his k'a.der, his country, 
and far more, to himseU' ! 

The mihtary character of General Taylor was not 
created by fortunate results in Mexico. He w;is well 
understood ])y those wliose position and duty called for 
the exercise of discrimination lonir ere this. Mr. 
Webster, alluding to the time when as connected with 
the Executive (government, and the very perilous and 
emljarrassing circumstances existing with the Indians on 
the frontier, — war indeed actually raging with the 
Florida tril)es, — gives this tribute to his character: ''I 
very well remenil)er, that those who took counsel 
together officially on that occasion, and who were 
desirous of placing the military connnand in the safest 
hands, came to the conclusion that there was no man in 
the service, more fully uniting the qualities of great 
military ability and great personal prudence, than 
Zachary Taylor, and he was, of course, appointed to the 
command." 

But I can linger no longer on the bright page of his 
military history. His life comprehended but one civil 
office, and all its many and important events are crowded 
into the brief space of sixteen months. Those cognizant 
of the events of an American Presidential campaign, 
need not be told, that there is a long, tiying, testing 
ordeal in advance, in which qualities of mind, principle, 
temper and patience are subjected to a severer analysis 



30 

and exposure, than the whole routine of an ordinary 
civil life could be expected to require. It is an cxpcri- 
mentiim cnicis, and if the candidate comes unharmed 
through the thrice heated furnace, he may indeed feel 
that his good angel has been at his side comforting and 
protecting him. That Gen. Taylor passed amongst the 
heated ploughshares triumphantly and successfully, need 
not be said. He resorted to no disguises, — descended to 
no indirect courses, — succumbed to no unworthy influ- 
ences, — was intimidated by no denunciations, — was 
entrapped by no snares. Ascending the Presidential 
chair, he early illustrated some of the advantages inci- 
dent to the selection of a new and fresh statesman to 
this great office, as well as his purity and disinterested- 
ness. To use his own earnest words, when the civic 
crown was urged upon him, he " had no friends to reward, 
no enemies to pmiish, nothing to serve J)iit his country. " So 
little was he embarrassed by any entangling understand- 
ings, direct or implied, that it is an interesting fact that 
every gentleman called to share in the high responsibili- 
ties as one of his constitutional advisers, was as an indi- 
vidual, a stranger to his chief He had selected his 
ministers solely from high public considerations and 
general reputation, and so wisely and prudently was 
this step accomplished, that no person or section of 
country could or did feel that a slight had been given, or 
the public interests set aside. The brief inaugural 
address, pronounced before the mighty multitude assem- 
bled to welcome their chosen head, was a document of 
that compact, vigorous, Saxon Enghsh style, which 



31 , 

cliaracterizcHl all the productions of his hand ; a style 
which '' the lover of pure English undefiled/' may point 
to as a model. 

The events which followed his induction, so far as the 
forei"-n relations of the country are concerned, have 
heen numerous, weighty and pecrdiar, — of a character 
often scarcely to Ije aid.cd in their disentanglement, hy 
parallels and precedents. lie dealt with all questions 
with a plain, direct singleness of })urpose, which proved 
the easiest key to their solution. The most wily and 
astute in the strange and often ign.oljle art of diplomacy 
soon discovered, that they were dealing with a man 
alike unlikely to practice or to l)e practiced upon, — a 
man who '' would ask nothing which was not right, 
would submit to nothing which was wrong." 

I am not disposed to undervadue the talents and 
experience of his coadjutors in solving these new and 
embarrassing cases, Ijut no remark can Ije more true than 
that under our system, ever}^ President must 1je his owai 
prime minister. Upon him, his wisdom and his respon- 
sibdity, nuist the ultimate decision, the selection of a 
course amidst perhaps conflicting opinions, devolve. In 
the singular difficulty thrust upon him 1jy M. Poussin, 
the ambassador of the earliest imitation Ptcpuldic of the 
French, the annals of diplomacy cannot furnish an 
example of absolute annihilation in the eyes of the 
w^orld, so complete as befel this rash and adventurous 
legate. The prompt and effective interference to pre- 
serve our treaty oldigations with Denmark from being 
infringed w^as a more serious but perhaps less irritating 



32 

duty. Gen. Taylor proved to the world that the nation's 
pledged faith in his hands, would be like a soldier's, — 
a gentleman's truth, inviolate and unspotted. 

The preparations to welcome Hungary into the family 
of governments, free and independent, had she sustained 
herself in her new position, justifying a recognition 
under the great code of public jurisprudence, were 
admirably managed in their secrecy, their strict regard 
to justice, and their coincidence with the sensibilities of 
our Republic. But it was his prompt, manly, noble 
vindication of the rights, honor and nationality of the 
Republic, in the course pursued respecting the miserable, 
worthless, Spanish refugee, Rey, which I regard as most 
closely approaching to some of the examples of the best 
spirit of the best days of the Roman power. It was 
Rome's proudest boast that the exclamation, ^^ sum cms 
Bomanus / " — I am a Iiojnan ciU?:cn, — from the poorest 
of her people, secured safety, protection and justice, in 
every region, however remote and barbarous, over 
which the flight of her victorious eagles had made her 
name known. It has, unfortunately, been the reproach 
of our system, that amidst its mighty extent of power 
and duties, its flag, however powerful nationally, has 
proved a shield scarce worth seeking, to the distressed 
and wronged of her citizens, in foreign lands. I have 
myself seen in the streets of Havana, our own aban- 
doned seamen seeking the protection of the red-cross 
banner of St. George, — calling themselves subjects of 
that father-land, which identity of race and tongue 
rendered at once natural and easy, because the energies 



33 

of a Kepul^lic were too expanded, were too tardily and 
ne'di<''ently and inefficiently Itrouii-lit into action, to (I'ive 
tlieni assnrance and relief under the fstripes and stars. 
The world had 1)egun to feel, that the machinery of an 
iinpcrl 11)11 In iHipcrlu Avas too unwieldy to be put in motion 
for a private wroiiLi,', or to secure individual protection. 
The concurrent acts and oi)inions of those seeking their 
fortunes on forei<^'n shores, were, that the flag of the 
Uliited States was worth least of any to its citizens. 

The case which called for the President's statesman- 
ship, his patriotism, and his spirit, was most fortunate for 
the development of his character and for a reform of a 
puljlic neglect. The individual who was seized jjy for- 
eign direction in one of our own ports, in the peace of 
the commonwealth and entitled to its protection, was no 
Ulijazy, no Garibaldi, no illustrious exile in the upturned 
cause of liberty — no Paez, '• an old man broken by the 
storms of state," in whose protection and behalf a thou- 
sand swords would leap from their scal^bards. He w^as 
a poor, contemptible, lying vagal )ond. His only claim 
to the o'lory of beini>' named in connection with the 
great events in which he figured, Avas, that he was a man 
— although an alien — on American soil, and as such 
the central pivot, on Avhich a great principle of national 
honor and existence liin<i;ed. When General Taylor's 
earliest demands for his restoration were believed to 
have been slighted, perhaps from the expectation that a 
government, so notoriously dilatory and ineffective as 
ours in such duties, Avould require that its further 

demands should be the subject of quires of diplomatic 

6 

L.of C. 



34 

correspondence, or weeks of Congressional debate, while 
the victim's bones perhaps were bleaching on the garrote^ 
the Cuban viceroy was frightened from his propriety by 
a brief message, which it is needless to say, brought back 
the kidnapped man, with all the speed that the elements 
would permit. 

I have before observed, that the President was incapa- 
ble of making one sentiment of flourish, that he never 
uttered a sentence to be repeated as a catchword or to 
draw applause. I might be obliged to except his 
memorable direction to his Secretary on that occasion, 
such is its point, could the English language express his 
idea in words more simple and unpretending : " Tell them^' 
said he, " that unless they bring him hade, Til send and fetch 
lihnr Spoken by a soldier who was known and feared 
wherever the Castilian tongue was spoken — whose 
very name whispered, was like that of the Coeur de 
Lion, a spell to hush the unquiet Saracen infants, — who 
had at his command, as Executive head, the army and 
navy of this Eepublic, it had a sublimity of meaning 
which might well startle the proud and indolent despot, 
who rules, with tyrant rod, the sole unforfeited possession 
of " fallen Iberia," in the world she discovered. 

Did the hour permit, it would be a grateful theme to 
survey the character of those treaties and conventions, so 
many in number and so important in consequences, with 
which his short administration was marked. It would be 
a grateful duty to illustrate the prospective peace-pre- 
servino- effects of that convention with Great Britain 
which secures the formation of a ship-canal, — to use his 



own vrords, '"' a h'ujhvcai Jalhifcdfo iJic common mes of man- 
Jiiiul^' which no vicissitndes of war can touch ; with 
Mexico for essentially a similar purpose, with the Sand- 
w^ich Islands, with Nicaragua, Peru, New Clrenada, 
and I know not how many other countries. 

With respect to his admiuistration in its domestic 
aspect, we all know and feel, alas ! too keenly, that the 
cares and anxieties of his position, almost from the 
hour of his inauo-uration, luive taken hold of one 
great, overpowering, ahsorbing topic of domestic dis- 
quiet. While the difficulties with far distant nations 
have been settled, as it were with a stroke of the pen, 
and every cloud dissipated, 1)y a plain jidherence to the 
principles of justice and '• the golden rule," here has 
been that frii-htful skeleton, with which every o-veat 
national house, as well as every domestic hal)itation, may 
well be said to be liaunted. I reali/e full well the 
difficulty on an occasion like the pi'escnt, of more than 
barely alluding to that great question, on which the 
minds of our fellow-citizens are so honestly divided at 
the North. Party man as I am by education, Ijy tem- 
perament, and by conviction, I should despise myself 
were I capable of taking advantage of a time like this, 
where the iuimediate supporters of our departed chief 
are indeed honored by the imited condolence of all, 
irrespective of political divisions, who are capa])le of 
appreciating uncorrupted faith, stern integrity, and 
unquestioned patriotism, to utter one word which would 
sound like partisan pleading. There is, however, a com- 
mon path on which, and a point to which, every North- 



36 

ern man, every son of New England, may proceed in 
perfect harmony. As far and no farther than our 
revered President could have accompanied us all, will 
the courtesies and proprieties of this occasion sanc- 
tion our considering his views. Looking at the position 
of Gen. Taylor as a slaveholder, born, educated, resident 
from infancy in a community where the views in rela- 
tion to servitude wxre more like those of our country 
or England a century since, than such as we now all 
believe to be sound and clear, — arrived probably as he 
was, at middle age, before he ever heard the justice and 
humanity of the system questioned or doubted by any 
members of the community, it was with unbounded 
satisfaction that his friends here early heard his declara- 
tion, that whatever was the will of the people, legiti- 
mately and constitutionally expressed, that it was his 
duty to sanction by his approval and carry into execu- 
tion. He thus placed himself deliberately and with his 
eyes open, in a position Avhich would have rendered it 
not only easy and consistent, but imperative for him to 
sign any bill to stay the extension of slavery, and to 
limit its existence within its constitutional bounds, which 
the people of the free States, vastly in the majority, 
should agree, by their own use of their superior strength, 
to claim. His ' principles of prospective action appear 
to have been matured, and, although no official occasion 
had arrived, when, without interference with the law- 
making prerogative, he could put forward his specific 
views, great reason exists to presume that they would 
have met the approval of the entire North. It seems 



37 

to me, that his messaLi;c in answer to the Resohition 
calhng upon him to explain the Executive action in 
rehation to the formation oi" a- State government in 
Cahfornia, and his often repeated remarks in a conver- 
sation with a connnittee from the Western Reserve of 
Ohio, at Mercer, Pa., give us no questionable indication 
of his determinations. 

The position of the President since the present Con- 
gress commenced its session, is one which has l)een well 
calculated to test his self-reliance, his magnanimity, and 
his faith in man. From an earl_y period, it was oljvious 
that the Executive, yet untried, with no overt acts 
certainly to ans^ver for, no faults so manifested as to 
have been fairly adjudged fit to 1)e met with opposi- 
tion, was to want a majority in each of the two Houses. 
By one of the singular accidents in the working of our 
system, a man who was elected l»y a most overwhelming 
expression of the popular will, was placed in direct 
antagonism with the other servants of the people, 
chosen also Ijy popular majorities. In this unnatural 
state of things, the President, unsupported as he has 
been by the co-operation of Congress, in flict with the 
opposition of a strong portion of the leiiding minds, has 
stood firm and inishaken, exhibiting neither impatience 
nor resentment. Amidst the douljts and darkness which 
have been hanging over the action of Congress, the 
people have gathered with renewed confidence and a 
strong sense of protection around their President. It 
was this undoubting trust in his firmness, integrity and 
wisdom, suddenly prostrated by his death, which sent 



38 

such a thrill of sensibility throughout the nation, as the 
melancholy tidings were borne on the wings of the 
lightning, from city to city, and State to State. Each 
member of society felt as if his own stay, prop and 
staff, had been struck from beneath him ! 

It must ever be one of the melancholy reflections 
connected with the brief career of our President, that 
he was not supported in Congress, as the people would 
have sustained him. He felt this no doubt deeply, as 
well as the attacks made u]3on him personally, or rather 
in his official identity, by some reckless and unprincipled 
adversaries. While his integrity of purpose, his direct- 
ness of conduct and his self-reliance were unmoved, he 
had not been so long trained to the blows of savage 
and poisoned y^^eapons of partisan assassination, as to be 
unconscious of them. The pathetic exclamation wrung 
from him in his last illness, tells us, alas ! how deeply the 
injustice and wanton wrong had touched him. "/ 
should not he surprised^' said he to his physician, " if this 
sickness sJioidd terminate in my death. I did not expect to 
encounter ivhat has heset me since my elevation to the Presi- 
dency. God hiows that I have endeavored to fulfil ivhat I 
conceived to he my honest duty. But I have heen mistaken. 
My motives have heen misconstrued, and my feelings grossly 
outraged.'' It is painful even to allude to this sad sub- 
ject, but the great lesson we are to draw from this 
melancholy occasion would be left untaught, were it to 
be wholly passed over. 

In summing up Gen. Taylor's character as a states- 
man, I cannot forbear to apply the oft-quoted verse of 



39 

the Roman poet, i^o true in its delineation, that its trite- 
ness is lost in its felicity : 

"Jusiuni ar ti'iiMiTin j)roi)<)siti viiMim, 

'■ Nunii\un!i arilor iji-ava iuiiciuiuiii, 

'• Xoii Aiiltus iiistaiitis tyraiuii. 

'■ IMeiilc ([iiatit >i)Iida." 

'■ Tlic man in cdiisrioiis virtue bold, 

" A\'lio (laivs ]tU sci-iTt puriiosc hold, 

'• I'n.diakuii hears the (a'owd's tuuinltuous erics, 

" And the ini]jetuous tyrant's aiii:ry hrow deties."' 

The theme npon "vvhich it remains to toneh, the 
private character of our deceased President — his life as 
a citizen, a head of a family, a man, — is one which has 
no eml^arrassments. His eulogist may rush forward 
without circumspection, for the ground is solid and 
luibroken, where no concealed ])itfalls, no half covered 
mosses, no treacherous places require heed and caution. 

If insensi1)ility to moral worth, to personal iuteo-rity, 
he one of the signs of a decaying state. Providence he 
thanked, the American people have lost none of that 
c[uick and tender appreciation, which a repul)lic should 
possess, whose sole foundation is in the virtue and 
culture of the masses. That striking resemblance in 
certain great moral lineaments and features, which the 
people early thought they traced between Zachary 
Taylor and the First of ^the Presidents, does not certainly 
disappear with the additional element, which higher 
responsilnlities and the last scene of life afford. It was 
strong in their personal virtues, their early trials and 
positions in life. Bred in frontier seclusion, each had that 
gentleness of disposition, that modesty of manner, that 
regard to each unit of life, which are deemed the happy 



40 

results of the highest advantages of education and 
refinement. Trained alike in the camp from early man- 
hood, the vices of the camp left them untouched. 
Their habits of temperance were pre-eminent; and in 
accordance with that advancing civilization and progress 
which, we trust, may be always onward, the last Presi- 
dent, for more than twenty years, gave the weight of his 
pledge, and of course of his example, to the cause of 
abstinence. IVlierever duty threw him, there he took 
an active part in the formation of temperance societies, 
and the distribution of temperance literature. Like 
that great exemplar again, whose character had always 
been the beau ideal of his admiration, and in assisting to 
consecrate a monument to whose memory he performed 
his last public duty, his name was unknown in the annals 
of quarrels, brav/ls, and duels. In the management of 
his private affiiirs, he was just and prudent, yet liberal 
and hospitable. By avoiding the errors of extrava- 
gance and pecuniary neglect, he escaped the wounds to 
his personal independence, the mortifications and 
dangers of indebtedness. He never gave a note. 

From his qualities as a man. Gen. Taylor was endeared 
to the masses to a degree of which we have no modern 
example. And yet not one act„one word of his life was 
that of the demagogue, — the popularity hunter. It was 
his mild, paternal, honest character, united with the idea 
of his modesty, moderation, firmness, valor, indomita- 
bleness, and self-sacrifice, which gave him the prodigious 
strength he had before the people. The great men and 
the great presses of the country followed, but they 



41 

never led, in that triuiiipliant march wliicli terminated 
only at the Capitol. It is truly remarka])le, hi view 
of the present state of national interests and feeling, 
how little local or sectional there was in his popular- 
ity. The leading hgure on the stage at a time Avlien 
the elements of sectionality ^vere more prominent than 
at any other epoch of our national history, how little 
was he regarded in any other than a national point of 
view. The question Avhether he were a northern, a 
southern, or a westei'n man, nearly paramount at his 
selection, disappeared almost wliolly hefore the devel- 
opment of a character, vrhich dissipated all apprehen- 
sions of partiality and narrow views. An officer of 
the army of the nation, he v>'as trained as a citizen of all 
the States, and his ex])ansive and magnanimou.s traits of 
Americanism had never l)een '' cabined, cribljed, confin- 
ed" l)y the narrow and ilii))eral prejudices of local and 
sectional origin. Placed at the head of the nation, the 
idea of Slide interests, or claims to preferences and ad- 
vantages which lines of latitude and longitude could 
discriminate, never entered his mind, or for a moment 
swayed his judgment. A holder of slaves, he was the 
strongest friend of free California- ; a planter, and as 
such presumptively l)!ased against the protection of 
northern industry, he was the avowed supporter of a 
lal^or-rewardino- tariff It was as an American tliat all 
thought of him, — as an American that all deplore him. 
He was indeed the President of the United States — 
of the whole people. 

The true strength of his character appears to me to 



42 

have laid in its just and harmonious proportions ; noth- 
ing wanting, nothing in excess ; the entire subjection 
of the lower elements — self-esteem, ambition, self-ag- 
grandisement, love of glory, of ease and impulse of 
temper, to the single guiding principle of duty and 
self-approval. 

His traits of disposition, as the head of a family, as a 
husband and Mher, are too delicate to be more than al- 
luded to. Enough is it to say, that in all these relations 
his character was consistent — just what we should 
expect it to be — just what his biographer, anxious to 
perpetuate his true glory, would have wished it to 
have been. 

The last closing scene of his life was in beautiful 
keeping with its whole antecedents. Providence grants 
to but few men, especially those whose responsibilities 
have been the heaviest, the opportunity of bearing their 
own unbiassed testimony to the true character of their 
own lives. Happy it is for such, happy is it for us all, 
that the physical laws of our being, as a common expe- 
rience, save us from a test of our own hearts and lives 
so tremendously severe ! To Zachary Taylor was gran1> 
ed the rare felicity of being able at that hour when dis- 
guises are useless, when the thin veil is torn aside which 
separates the real from the seeming, when the applause 
of acts, however great, is lost in " the still small voice" 
of intent, fearlessly to look at the past with steady and 
nnquailing eye. He met the last great enemy, just as 
he had done all the earthly adversaries against whom 
he had been obliged to contend, and for the self same 



43 

reason in his calmness. " / am not afraid to die ; I have 
endeavored to do m>j did//.'" 

When the great Athenian philosopher was asked by 
the L}(lian king, who was the happiest among men, he 
replied, '' Let no man l)e called happy, nntil he is dead." 
The whole life of Zacliary Taylor is complete, — the 
last page is tnrned — the last seal afiixed. The cnrtain 
lias dropped over the scene, and we can safely pro- 
nounce that his existence has Ijcen happy for himself, 
happy for his family, happy for his country, happy for 
mankind ! 

•• IJrst. wearieil soMicr. I'cst — tliy work is done, — 
•'Thy last i^ivat liattle IViutiht — tlie victury won, — 
"And where tliy Conntry's Genins vii;il keeps, 
'• Aronnd tliine Iionored grave, a Natimi weejis.'' 



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